Flag Furor: China Sees Red Over Starry Slip-Up in Rio

Two Chinese flags, with the small stars tilted in the wrong direction, hang either side of the U.S. flag above the medal ceremony for the women's 10 meter air rifle competition at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Photo:
Reuters

Several Chinese flags used by organizers at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil featured wrongly angled stars, a subtle but significant slip that has irked Chinese officials as well as legions of viewers back home.

Olympic organizers pledged to rectify the mistake, which came to light on Saturday during the games’ first medal ceremony, where two Chinese shooters celebrated podium finishes beneath a pair of flags with wonky stars.

China’s national flag features five golden stars backed by a field of red, with one large star flanked on the right by an arc of four smaller stars, each tilted to point a tip directly toward the center of the larger star.

The small stars on Chinese flags in Rio, however, are laid upright—an error that first appeared on a flag waved by the Chinese delegation during Friday’s opening ceremony, but seemingly went unnoticed at the time.

The incorrect Chinese flag was first waved at the opening ceremony.
Photo:
ASSOCIATED PRESS

At a medal ceremony the next day, where the flags hung motionless and were easier to scrutinize, the mistake was obvious. Chinese officials lodged protests, while viewers at home voiced complaints on social media.

“Some attentive web users have discovered that the five-star red flag used at this Olympics appear problematic,” state broadcaster China Central Television said on its official Weibo microblog. “The national flag is the symbol of a nation! No problems are permissible!”

CCTV’s comments drew more than 93,000 “likes” from Weibo users, some of whom criticized the Olympic organizers for perceived sloppiness. “This Olympics are the worst I’ve ever seen,” a user wrote.

Others talked about who was to blame. “If the flags were made in China, then things would be a little awkward,” one Weibo user said. Another user responded, “Even if they were made in China, they were based on Brazilian-supplied designs!”

It wasn’t clear who produced the erroneous flags, though CCTV said last week that “all the national flags that will be hoisted during the [opening] ceremony are made in China,” as part of a report asserting that Chinese-made products “will be an integral part of the Olympics.”

Chinese diplomats, for their part, have filed an official complaint to the Rio Olympic Committee and suggested that a non-Chinese contractor was responsible for the mistake.

In a verified Weibo post dated Monday, the Chinese consulate in Rio de Janeiro said the committee has apologized and ordered the contractor—which the consulate didn’t name—to resolve the problem.

A Chinese state-run newspaper, however, quoted the Rio Olympic Committee as saying that all flags used at the games had been approved by the respective national Olympic committees. “The Chinese flag was approved by the Chinese Olympic Committee,” People’s Daily said, citing comments from the Rio committee.

The Chinese flag was designed in 1949, just months before the founding of the People’s Republic. Its red field is meant to represent the Communist revolution, while the five stars symbolize the unity of the Chinese people under the Communist Party.

The large star represents the party, while the small stars symbolize the four social classes as defined by Mao Zedong: the working class, the peasantry, the “urban petty bourgeoisie,” and “national bourgeoisie.”

China’s uproar over stars askew wasn’t the only flag-related furor over the opening Olympic weekend.

During Friday’s opening ceremony, Australian broadcaster Seven Network accidentally displayed the flag of Chile instead of China’s when representing the Middle Kingdom on a list of participating nations, drawing derision from Chinese viewers down under.

An unnamed Seven Network spokesperson told China’s government-run Xinhua News Agency that the network apologized “unreservedly” for the “human error” that resulted in the flag switcheroo.

Efforts to reach Seven Network for comment weren’t immediately successful, while a receptionist who answered a call after working hours said the broadcaster doesn’t take queries outside of the business day.